Truth and Reality

by Otto Rank

Rank's development of will psychology led him to a philosophy of the psychological, outlined in Truth and Reality. Here he explores the psychological determinants of the relationship of inner world to outer reality.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Born in Vienna as Otto Rosenfeld, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, an editor of the two most important analytic journals, managing director of Freud's publishing house and a creative theorist and therapist. In 1926, Otto Rank left Vienna for Paris. For the remaining 14 years of his life, Rank had a successful career as a lecturer, writer and therapist in France and the U.S..

Reviews

[Jean-Michel Vincent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just reading this book, along with Will Therapy, is a therapy by itself. Rank provides the deepest insights into human psychology and the psychotherapy process I have ever read. The most important aspect of his work is that he understands the therapist is flawed and the therapeutic process is DYNAMIC. The deepest insight I retained from Rank is the understanding of consciousness as a conflict resolution mechanism for the ego that is constantly generating "self-preserving" thoughts in the mind.

[Yasin Ramazan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It offers so many issues to consider, yet it doesn't guide reader how to deal with them. I had expected a more intensive analysis of what Rank considers the junction between truth and reality. He only gives an insight into his understanding of 'will' and leaves obscure its connection with truth and reality.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rank argues that there is no such thing as good or bad, just as there is no such thing as true or false. He subscribes to freeing the id from an archaic moral order (The decalogue) as a suitable means to ameliorate neurosis. '

Essentially, a lot of his arguments are based on thoughts on and how to free oneself from negative feelings such as guilt and worthlessness. The chapter entitled "Truth and Reality," which bears the same title of the book delves into what Rank considers a difference between truth feeling in the subjective sense, and actual reality. Similar to depression reality, an argument is laid whence one who gets closer to the latter, actually becomes more neurotic.

This work would benefit from being more readable to the layman. It was also frustrating trying to differentiate the different types of clients who suffered from different conflicts. For example, Rank discusses how the self-conscious, creative, and action oriented individuals all were distinct, but it wasn't precisely clear if these differences were innate or they came about by specific psychic happenings.

He also describes psychic happenings without really fully guiding the reader to how this happens, which again is frustrating. He haphazardly throws out the name of Nietzsche being not particularly concerned with finding or discovering 'philosophical truths' but is rather the creative type driven by will. Considering how influential Will was in Nietzsche's philosophy, some threads of this argument ring true, though it comes across as more abstract, and distant than necessary or even practical.

This work has potential as far as raw material goes to work with as far as introductory material for various psychic conflicts, though does come across as vastly incomplete.

I particularly enjoyed Rank's discussion on how men deal with the 'guilt' feeling, but again found his explanation lacking and desire to understand the phenomena more completely.

[Emre Akaltın · Rating 3 out of 5]

Otto Rank... Fenomenolojiyle kafası karışmış bir psikanalist. Sanatçı diye bir üst 'benlik' iddia ediyor, bunu nihai hedef kabul ediyor. Daha önce ''Doğum Travması''nı okumuştum ve sanırım o dönem katıldığım ve kafamı kurcalayan pek çok şey fark etmiştim.

Bu kitabında ise, Freud'un ortaya koyduğu içsel (kalıtımsal) altbenlik ile dışsal (parental) üstbenlik arasında sıkışmak yerine 'iradesini kullanabilen yaratıcı bir kişiliğin' mümkün olduğunu söylüyor. Ben burada şeyi fark ettim: Rank'ın Freud'u ne kadar sınırlı bir yerden ele aldığını ve Adler ve Jung karışımı bir yerden bir psikoloji pratiği yapmaya çalıştığını -ki Jung'a doğrudan göndermeler de var. Psikanaliz kesinlikle böyle bir şey değil; yine de kitabın yazıldığı dönem göz önüne alındığında önemsiz bir eser sayılmaz.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but very insightful and thought provoking. If you are interested in learning more about yourself and mankind in general read this book. It's short but takes some time to digest.

[Federico Mengozzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rank is one of those authors you wish you’d discovered years earlier.
But the truth is: unless you read him as a peer, he won’t land.

He doesn’t offer a system. He offers a mirror, one that demands you meet it with your own structure or not at all.

Wittgenstein wrote

“My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.)”

And Nietzsche

“There are more idols in the world than there are realities: that is my ‘evil eye’ for this world, that is also my ‘evil ear’… I break with all the past.”

Rank belongs with them. He builds the ladder. He names the idol. Then he demands you burn both

[Koray Karabekiroğlu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daha iyi bir çeviri olsa, daha keyifli bir okuma olurdu...

[Allanah Freddi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rank's ideas are truly mind-bending. It took me a while to get my head around the material in this book, but once I did it was like...woah. Is there any objective truth other than what we feel?